Oklahoma Musician Jake Tankersley Releases New Single, “Midnight Oil”
Jake Tankersley opens for the Swon Brothers at a downtown Claremore concert in 2021.
For most people, the world stopped spinning in the spring of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of “non-essential” businesses around the country for months. The school year ended early, many jobs switched to a work-from-home model, and with no end in sight many folks spent their days watching Netflix and developing new hobbies.
But it didn’t last forever - and eventually everyone had to go back to work. Getting back on that grind was the motivation behind the new single from Verdigris-based country singer Jake Tankersley.
“We all kind of went through that season where we just vegged out and kind of sat around and thought, ‘what do we do with ourselves?’” says Tankersley. “That was kind of the heart of it.”
“It was finding the normal grind of life, of finding the midnight oil of getting back into that work ethic.”
Tankersley is no stranger to digging down deep and finding another gear. The Sand Springs native has been burning the midnight oil for more than a decade as an aspiring country music star.
His new song, “Midnight Oil,” which hit all the major streaming platforms on Friday, is just the latest brick in a road that has led him to California and back in pursuit of stardom.
“Going past the point of exhaustion, you get to that place where you’re in that work mode and the sweat’s pouring down,” said Tankersley. “You kind of lose all sense of reality and you just keep on working through it.”
“I remember building a fence with my dad growing up. Doing a mile worth of barbed wire fence out in the middle of the country - and if the fence post hits a rock you can’t just change the direction of the fence, it has to continue to go straight so you have to go through the rock somehow.”
Tankersley has written a broad array of country songs over the years, from southern-rock bangers like “Hunt and Fish” to neotraditional tunes like “The War.” Perhaps his biggest hit was the one the world wishes he never had to write.
As a senior at Charles Page High School, Tankersley wrote and recorded “See You Soon,” in honor of classmates Hannah Christian and Cassidy Rotramel, who died in a tragic car accident at only 15 years of age. That song racked up play time on local radio stations and raised more than $7,000 for the families of the girls.
Since then, his musical journey has seen a lot of changes. He went from selling physical copies of his first EP in the Reasor’s parking lot to earning a golden ticket to Hollywood on American Idol’s 15th season. He went from a plumber’s apprentice to the full-time worship pastor at Cedar Point Church in Claremore. And he went from playing in high school talent shows to playing at bars, festivals, weddings, and anywhere else that’ll pay the bills while helping him grow his following and pursue his dreams.
Through it all, he’s had to keep burning that midnight oil. And no matter how many metaphorical rocks have gotten in the way of his metaphorical fenceposts, he hasn’t changed directions.
Tankersley celebrated his newest single with a show at Life of Riley in Sand Springs, where he has become a bit of a regular over the past year.
On Friday he and his wife loaded up their four kids and drove the half hour from Verdigris to Berryhill, where they dropped the little ones off at his mother’s house before the show. And when the show ended a little after midnight, after a full house of dedicated fans chanted for an encore, they drove back home to try and catch some sleep before a busy weekend of ministry.
On Saturday the Tankersleys’ church distributed 500 pairs of free shoes to kids of all ages in time for the new school year. On Sunday, Tankersley led his church in worship while his wife, Ashleigh, ran the children’s ministry.
Of course, the shows, the family life, and the church life are the fun part - not the grind. The grind comes in finding the time to record and market himself and look for opportunities to reach the next level as a musician.
“I record in Oklahoma City at Castle Row Studios,” said Tankersley. “Getting down there and recording and going back and forth. Just carving out time to make that happen.”
Fortunately he has help with the self-promotion. Friends and family make the trip to most of his shows to support him. One fan was handing out flyers to all the bar patrons with QR codes to pull up his music, merchandise, and social media accounts.
The songwriting is another aspect of the industry that can be a chore at times, but without the expectations of a full-time songwriter, he still gets to focus on writing from the heart with no deadlines.
“It is nice because there’s not a ton of pressure on me to write songs,” says Tankersley. “It’s not like I’m a songwriter for a publishing company where they’re pumping out at least a song a day. I don’t have that pressure. Songs can come more natural to me just through life experiences.”
“I live a little bit of life, I go through some things, and then I get like a real true song through that experience that’s more honest.”
Tankersley’s strategy is also changing for how he releases his songs. His debut album, The Little Things, was released in 2019 and included 18 songs. This time around he’s recording his songs as singles and releasing them one at a time instead of dumping them all at once.
“I probably would’ve done things differently, looking back on it now. Singles is definitely the better way to go because each individual song gets more attention. People just don’t listen to albums anymore.”
He will be releasing “You’re a Man Now” on September 9th, followed by another single in October.
“Country music is just one of those things with truth in the songs,” says Tankersley. “It’s just different. It’s life. If you read the songs, there’s a lot of storytelling. It’s just life in general and it’s something that’s always been a love of mine.”
